Fire and Ice
by Anneka Neko
Summary: ONESHOT. Follow-up to "Friendship". They were like fire and ice; both had lots of energy and personality, but they seemed like polar opposites. Onesided Vexen/Axel, mention of onesided Axel/Hayner.


Authoress' Notes:

Okay, it's November 1, and we all know what that means- NANOWRIMO! It also, unfortunately, means a stall in fanfiction. I'm posting this fic as, in theory, my final post until December. If I post before then, scold me, 'cause it means I'm not focusing.

Okay, so! We did "Fire and Ice", by Robert Frost, in English a few days ago. Gah, I love that poem. Anyways, it struck me that Axel and Vexen would, obviously, work rather well with it.

This is a follow-up to "Friendship", since, clearly, a sexually frustrated Seifer wasn't complication enough for this maybe-couple. Mr. Dallas is a shameless reference to my English teacher last year, Mr. Austin (-cough- who may have also been a crush), though I worked a bit of another teacher in there (the epic slackness). Oh, and, at a total loss for a last name, I gave Vexen the surname of this girl I went to middle school with. She was blonde. It works.

I'd love to be able to promise more from this series I seem to be building, but I won't, because I know there's a definite chance I won't write any more. Still, this set of characters I'm building up is fun, so I'll say that I'm hopeful.

Disclaimer: If I owned it, the gay would be _way_ more obvious.

**---**

**Fire and Ice**

**---**

Axel Sinclair felt almost giddy as he closed the door to the Latin classroom. He mustered the courage to toss a wink at Hayner, and then he was gone, the thick door separating the two.

_Yessssss_, the spiky-haired redhead thought to himself, silently pumping his fist in the air as he turned to leave the 500 wing. He hadn't even tripped and embarrassed himself (a miracle, considering his legendary penchant for sudden falls down multiple flights of stairs) and Hayner smiled at him!

_My god, I'm pathetic_. He wasn't sure exactly when he'd realized that maybe he was focusing on the wrong blonde, but over the past few months, Axel's feverish, creepy interest in Roxas had turned into a friendly, joking game. At the same time, he was taking more care to be nice to Hayner now. _Being a teenager is fucking confusing_, he mused. Pushing open the door, Axel stepped out into the cool, crisp air and stopped, breathing the fresh scent of fall in deeply. He cracked an involuntary grin. Hayner had _smiled_! Axel had been comfortable for years with his sexuality, but never had he felt gayer. He felt like he could dance, out of pure, exuberant excitement.

"Hello, Axel," a cold voice called out from under the breezeway. "Skipping again?" _Then again, maybe not_.

Axel turned to see a boy about his age, with long, straight, light blonde hair, a bony face and a spectacular sneer. By spectacular, I mean Draco Malfoy would be sick with jealousy, and Lucius would be in the corner _weeping_ at his inability to compete. This guy was pretty hardcore about his expressions.

"What do you want, Vexen?" Vexen Jongkind was a fellow senior, and he and Axel had never exactly been on the best of terms. They were like fire and ice; both had lots of energy and personality, but they seemed like polar opposites. This semester, they shared only one class, Brit Lit, but they'd already been given detention three times each for provoking the other. That was saying something, considering that Mr. Dallas pretty much _never_ gave detentions. It wasn't even that they especially _disliked_ each other (at the very least, Axel certainly bore the other teen no ill will), but they simply couldn't seem to get along.

Vexen shrugged. "Must I need anything, to greet a beloved classmate?"

Axel narrowed bright green eyes. "Okay, now I _know_ you want something."

"So paranoid," Vexen retorted with a smirk. "Why can't I just like saying 'hello' to pyromaniac delinquents?"

Axel took a step forwards, glaring. "Oh? And what about you? Class cancelled, then?"

The blonde snorted. "By Mr. Come-To-School-With-A-Fever-And-Still-Read-Shakespeare-Out-Loud? Not likely."

"Then why aren't you in class?"

Vexen's eyes (it was funny, really- even though the two were so different, in looks, personality, everything, their eyes were nearly the exact same color) were unreadable. "I was bored," he replied, after a while.

Axel frowned. "And Mr. Dallas _let_ you leave for that?"

Vexen's eyes shifted away slightly. "No," he said nonchalantly. "I left."

Axel shook his head, confusion erasing his hostility. "But why?" he asked. "You're always bored in there."

Vexen's ears colored slightly. "Well, normally, you're there to entertain me," he replied shortly.

A few moments of stunned silence followed. Then, a grin began to slowly spread itself across Axel's face, matched by the blush spreading across Vexen's cheeks. "Vexen, you _missed_ me!" Axel teased.

Vexen turned grumpily to leave, normally pale face by this time rivalling Axel's hair. Axel followed, grinning broadly.

"Aww, Vexen, you should've _told_ me about the depth of your feelings for me!"

Vexen gave him a sideways glance. "I'm not a sharing person, Axel."

Axel chuckled as he held the door into the 400 wing open for Vexen. Theirs was the second door, almost immediately in front of them. "You should try it, Vexy. I can be very nice when I want to be. Got it memorized?" With a wink, he turned back to face the door to their classroom.

Opening it, Axel completely missed the rather interesting expression on Vexen's face. Had he seen it, he might have not felt so untroubled as he stepped into the room.

As it was, Axel was soon sitting down (Mr. Dallas was the kind of awesome teacher who actually _believed_ students who had legit excuses for lateness) with some blush-inducing memories to replay of his little adventure with Hayner, and the comforting, if surprising, realization that maybe he and Vexen were secretly friends after all.

---

I'm working on a Vexen POV. He's really interesting to translate into this world. He's the same old Vexen, but you have to tone down his most identifying features, the crazy and the old man rape laugh. Beyond that, it's interesting to give him that air of Vexen-ness without getting him arrested for molestation. I chose to go with the snarky air. He strikes me as a snarker. I bet Even was kind of an asshole. XD

Anyways, that Vexen POV is a WIP, and, while I'm feeling good about finishing it, NaNo takes precedence for now. Maybe if I build up a buffer of a few thousand words or so I can go back to working on the Vexen fic again. (Feel free to badger me with demands that I get my wordcount up and get back to these fics. It might help!)

Please review!


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